The Dead Don't Talk (Book 1)

Chapter 12: The Herd

"Are you okay though kid, I saw you almost got bit... Im sorry, I just wasn't strong enough for that." He told me. I shook my head and showed him my hole that was in my pants. "Damn kid, that was close..."
"Yeah I thought I was a goner... It is okay, if something like that happened to my family I wouldn't be able to help either... And you are stronger than me..." I responded to him. He shook his head and then closed the door to the room that I had been in. Then he went and sat back down on the chair.
"I am afraid not... I just have to look strong to everyone in the community. Or else, everyone would be gone at this point." He told me. It made sense, if the community didn't see strong people like him then they would have given up in living at this point.
I followed him into the other room and sat down on the couch. I tried clearing my head from thinking about killing his wife and mainly killing his new born child. I tried thinking about how they weren't people anymore but it did not make me feel any better.
I just laid down and then closed my eyes, hoping that maybe I would just wake up and it was all a dream. I would wake up and I was 4 again, I was at my house listening to Angela blast her music through the speakers that she had in her room. Back when life was simpler, sure I would have school, but school would be a lot better than everyone I care about dying and the world would be normal again.
I knew that it was not going to happen though, it was all real, I wish it was not... But sadly, it was. I finally cleared my head and then fell over on the couch and went to sleep.

I woke up and Christian was pushing up against me. I was a bit confused what was going on. I could still here the sounds of the undead pushing against the wall. I wished that this was all a dream, my wish hadn't come true.
"Kid, I just found a pack of fire crackers that I got from the 4th of July. He are going to use that... The question is just how exactly we are going to open the door or a window to get it through far enough that they will run off." He told me. I lifted my head and hopped up from the couch. This was great news! 4th of July had been a long lost holiday since the world all went to shit.
There was no reason to celebrate a country holiday, if countries were not a thing anymore. The only things that existed were the dead... They ruled the world now, we were just the rebels, a little tool in their game, I didn't think the rebels could win, but I think we would still live.
"You've got 2 story house, maybe we could go upstairs and open a window out there and get on the roof." I told him. He thought about it for a few moments and then he pointed right at me nodding.
"Very smart kid, you're going to have to do it, I am too big for those tiny windows I will help you get through it though." He told me. I nodded and then we got up from our couch and chair. I was ready, this was the only way out, we would die if we went out there, we would starve or be dehydrated if we stayed in here. Unless there was some sort of loud noise we would be stuck inside here.
We had used firecrackers back in the community a long time ago. I remember my mother getting so upset and telling me that they weren't used for the holidays anymore. It was so long ago, we didn't have any anymore... They ran out a long time ago, and we couldn't just go make some more.
I just hoped it would work, I had some firecrackers in the past that didn't work at all.
I followed Christian up the stairs of his house and then went the the hallway to the left of us. The window that was there was actually really small and I thought to myself this couldn't be the window that we were going through surely right?
"We are going through that little tiny window?" I said to him. He just smiled and then began to laugh. This had to be some sort of joke, right now we didn't have time for these sort of jokes. Right now I just wanted to get back home and tell Liam about all the stories of the last few days.
"I mean there's another one of my room, but it is a bit harder to get into." He said to me. I closed my eyes and just nodded telling him that I was basically ready for it at this point.
I kept my eyes closed... Thinking hard about it. If it slipped out of my hands or if I didn't throw it far enough then we were screwed. I couldn't think those type of thoughts though. If you thought that sort of way then those thoughts would soon become a reality. As my mom used to tell me.
I then opened my eyes and Christian then began to open the window. But the window wouldn't open. Christian yelled and then walked away from it and just sat on the back side of the hallway. He looked very upset but then he just looked at me. I hoped he didn't think all of this was my fault... Well I suppose it actually technically was all my fault. If only I hadn't have celebrated about killing my first dead when there were so many around us.
"Kid I'm going to need your help, I can't do this myself, the latch is jammed, we probably cant do this period... But it is still worth a shot." He told me. I nodded and then he moved back towards the window.
We then both began to push up as hard as possible, Christian was trying to wiggle it around a bit but it was no luck at all. Christian then began to yell even louder. I kind of wanted to tell him to be quiet, but they all knew that we were hear at this point anyways.
He then walked back away from the room and then walked into his bedroom in the room beside us.
I heard a bit of latching but then I heard the window open from the other room. I then heard a bit of a celebration and he then walked back in the hallway that I was staying in. I knew what he was going to tell me next. But if this window was hard enough as is... I don't even want to see the window in the other room.
"Alright kid, this one is a little bit smaller and its not in a great spot on the wall for me to put you in there. But we are still going to try it... We will die here if we do not try at least..." He said to me. I nodded and then followed him into the other room.
The window in this room was higher up on the wall and way smaller. I wasn't even sure that I could get through that at all. I would try... All of this was my fault in the first place. We didn't know that there were going to be so many of them here. And then I had to get all happy when I killed my first one.
He then began to lift me up, I tried pushing through as hard as I could but I was a bit to chubby to push through it. If only I had worked out more. I wasn't fat my any means at all, but I also wasn't skinny at all.
Christian pulled me down and then laid down on the bed looking so disappointed. I felt so bad, we were going to die here all because of me being stupid. Why was I even happy I had even killed another person in the first place? I sat down beside of him on the bed. He had his eyes and I could here his breath from beside me.
He then hopped up from the bed which scared me for a bit. He then began running downstairs. I was tempted to follow him, but it was probably for the best that I didn't do anything else stupid. If he needed me then he would yell my name. I wished that there was another few people nearby us. Maybe they would see the heard and help us by pulling them away. But I really doubt how often there were people coming through this area.
Most people that went out now, went out in far away directions, the wanderers were there to search up any new places, and the scavengers were there to scavenge them once the wanderers came back and told the community about the areas.
The scavengers and wanderers were both amazing groups, wanderers had found tons of place with stuff for the scavengers to take. The scavengers had come back with some wagons and taken the most important things back with them. There were still other things in those places, they would take them back each time they went through that area, but the first supply run was the most important.
I felt happy that I would be doing a job where I was going to learn every skill trait of every single one of those jobs. But then I realized the situation that we were in. If we didn't get out somehow then all of that would all just go to a big waste. And then we would lose one of our most important people in the community. Someday I had hoped that I would be important like Angela and someday I would be the main scavenger.
Nothing like that would ever happen now and it almost made me want to cry. I sat down and held back the tears. Everything had all gone to shit all because of me again. I was just more of a hindrance than a help for everyone.
I then heard Christian climbing up the stairs. It sounded like he was having some sort of trouble so I went down the stairway to go help him with whatever he was doing. It sounded like he was carrying some sort of heavy thing and I could only wander what it was.
I looked down the stairs and saw that he was carrying a large ladder. It wasn't the weight that was making it hard for him it there was just no good direction one person the carry it up the stairs. The could smash it into the ceiling or it would get stuck against the sides of the wall.
I ran down the stairs help him, he was stuck on the 2nd step. I then began to help him carry it, it was actually surprisingly heavy so maybe that was a part of the problem for him taking it up the stairs. Or maybe it wasn't... I wasn't stupid, I wasn't going to pretend I was way stronger than him. He had been taking care of himself, working out, and working out here for years. I had never done any of that before.
We got it up the stairway pretty easily however with both of us helping each other. We then began to head towards his room, both of us carrying it through there as well.
It wasn't hard to put it down, we put it down right beside the window and I could actually see a bit of sweat coming from Christians forehead.
"I thought you said sweating was for the weak." I said laughing at him. He had told me that the very first day I had been out here. He shook his head and then laid back down on his bed.
"Alright kid I am going to need to to get up on that ladder and then turn you body sideways... That way your fat ass doesn't get stuck in the window." He said to me. I looked back at him a bit upset, I knew that he was just getting back at me for calling him weak but it still upset me a bit even though I was not even near fat.
"Damn... So you needed a ladder because you weren't strong enough to carry me in there sideways? That just makes you sound even more weak." I said getting back at him even better. He shook his head and then I heard a snort come from him.
"Kid shut the hell up and just go through there. I'll toss you the firecracker." He told me. I nodded and then hopped onto the ladder. Once I was on it I turned sideways and easily got through it.
"Toss it!" I said to him. He nodded and then threw it at me. I pretended like I had missed it and then fell through the rough. He then began cursing an insane amount. I then pulled it out from my back showing him that I had caught it.
"Real funny kid... Alright come towards me that way I can ignite it... Then throw it as far as you can... Throw it like you throw a football." He told me. I nodded and then began heading towards him. He then put a bit of a blaze a match that he had downstairs in his bag. He had told me they were only for important situations. I was pretty sure these were one of those important situations.
"What's a football?" I asked him. I had only heard of that word when I was way younger. I had no idea what it actually was. He just shook his head and then set the firecracker up with his match set.
"Don't worry about it kid... Just throw it far!" He said to me. Once I heard it start I grabbed it and threw it as far as I could. It wasn't that far but it would be enough to get the dead away for a minute or two. And luckily they were too dumb to realize we were still here. We could just sneak out the back door.
None of this would have happened either if there wasn't a bunch of holes in the fences of his back lawn. I couldn't blame him for that though. It wasn't his fault that they had pushed over the fences.
I then went ahead to see if they had gone after it. But they didn't it was almost like they had not seen it. I looked at the firecracker. It was not crackling the could not hear it they were not going after it.
"What the hells going on kid? I don't hear in popping!" Christian said to me. I looked down at the ground sadly. Had I not thrown it right had I not ignited it correctly? I then looked back at him to tell him what had happened.
"Its not popping... I don't know why! I did everything right!" I told him. He turned his head looking a bit upset. I hoped he wasn't too upset at me I didn't know what exactly I had done wrong. He shoved his fist into the wall nearby him.
I didn't know whether or not to get off the roof or what. I didn't know if he was going to attack me or something. I didn't know what this guy was like when he was angry.
"Come on kid, get down from there... I'm going to see if we can find another way maybe something with fire." He told me. I nodded and then began climbing through the window. I hit the ground a little bit hard but then I pulled myself up.
"What did I do wrong?" I asked him. He looked at me a bit, and I almost wanted to look down feeling ashamed that I failed and might have just killed both of us.
"Nothing that was your fault kid. Stop putting it on yourself. Some of those things just don't work and I've had those for over 10 years... It would make sense that they wouldn't work." He said to me. That lifted my head up and made me feel slightly better about myself. We had still failed though, not that it was out fault... Well technically all of this was my fault.
We went down stairs and looked around for any sort of thing that would set fire to something and that we could throw to pull them away.
I looked in every room besides the room I had killed Christians wife and son. I didn't want to go in there but, if it was the last resort. We had basically looked in every room up to this point. We had gotten no sort of luck. I then began going towards that room but Christian held me back to stop me.
"Kid there's nothing in that room. I can tell you have changed since you have done that... You don't need to go back in there to make you feel worse about yourself." He told me. It was fair enough, I couldn't help but think, I had just killed his family. I nodded and then we went towards the couch and chair that we had been at earlier.
I laid down, I wasn't tired but I wanted so bad just to fall asleep and clear all of those terrible thoughts from out of my head. I closed my eyes but sleep would not come to me. The sun was beginning to set. Maybe we would just spend the night here. Maybe they would be gone in the morning.
I knew that wasn't true, the only thing that could save us at this point was maybe someone with a gunshot nearby but most people in the community had silencers at this point... Even if we got that lucky odds are if they were out here then they would have one of those on them.
I began to fall into a sleep thankfully but then I felt Christian push me over.
"Kid... We are going to have to try to run tonight. We don't have any food on us... And not only that but we are going to be so weak in the morning." He told me. I nodded and he helped me get up from the couch. We then began to open the door.
The second that Christian opened the door a bunch of arms and hands began to push through. He slammed the door shut and a few of the arms fell through the sides of the door when he did that.
"Ugh... Disgusting." I said to him. I heard a bit of a chuckle from him. This situation that we were in right now. I couldn't see anything funny about the situation. But I guess it was just a natural instinct for him because we were in such a stressful situation.
"Kid... You will get used to seeing shit like that sometime soon. You'll be seeing a lot worse shit than that soon." He told me. I hoped not, those were just arms torn in half just sitting there on the floor. I think I would rather see I head get chopped of then see that.
I nodded to him and then we began to head upstairs. We went through the hallway and Christian tried opening up the window again. I looked at his body, even sideways I don't think he could get through that window. It wasn't fat that was holding him down in this situation. It was all just strength and muscle.
I tried helping him but it was to no avail. It still wouldn't budge a single bit and he looked like he was about to shove his fist in the wall again but this time he didn't.
"Well shit kid... I don't know if I can get through that window in the other room. If I can't then you might have to go and run on your own." He said to me. I nodded, I didn't know the way back or anything like that. We were just straight up screwed at this point.
He then handed me his map and I pulled it in the backpack. Even if I made it somehow through all of that. What was a going to tell Shannon? She had kicked people out for losing peoples life's. This was one of the main guys in the community. If we lost him, she hated Angela as well. She would for sure kick me out just to make Angela upset.
I had only been trained a few days. I wasn't ready to make it out there alone. I had no idea how to catch food, and what happens if I ran into the wrong sort of person.
I cleared all of those thoughts from out of my head and then we began heading into the other room. I got up on the ladder and Christian helped me pull sideways. I got through the side like before and then I looked at Christian. He just shook my head at me.
"There's no way I can get through that kid. Just get me one of those waters you have, you're going to have to run back to the community if you want to save my life." He said to me. I shook my head, he wouldn't even try to get through it? But I did what he asked and I gave him 2 of the 3 cans of water I had on me. The 3rd one was halfway empty but I could make it back.
"You're not even going to try?" I asked him. He just shook his head. I would have to run as fast as possible. I gave him my other can of water. By the time I would get back it would be to late and we would have to wait for the morning.
But it would be enough water for a few days and the food, you cant die from starvation unless you don't eat for weeks. Odds are if we couldn't get him back he would die of dehydration.
"Can we just smash threw the other window?" I asked him. He looked at me and thought about it for a few seconds. But then he just shook his head.
"Even if we smashed through it... Kid, I would bleed so much and there still couldn't be enough room unless you pulled the bars off and took all the glass... Just go kid, you're faster than the herd."